


ash and embers

by RedLights



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Battle of Sodden Hill, Episode: s01e08 Much More, F/M, Found Family, Injury Recovery, Post-Canon, i don’t know the lore sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:14:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22223902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedLights/pseuds/RedLights
Summary: ciri finds geralt, geralt and ciri find yennefer, yennefer finds out who ciri is, i find out that having a lot of feelings about the witcher finale does not necessarily mean you can write those feelings into a coherent thing
Relationships: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Comments: 14
Kudos: 152





	1. Chapter 1

She was young, so very young, her round face pale and smooth, but there were years and years in her wide blue eyes. What had happened to this child – his child – before they had found each other? What would still befall her in the wretched war to come?

“Who is Yennefer?” The first thing she had said to him. 

Geralt hadn’t answered, still holding her in a way he’d never held anyone or anything before. A way his mother might have held him, once. “Princess Cirilla.” 

The girl stepped back and shook her head once. “Ciri.” 

Geralt nodded. 

“You’re Geralt of Rivia. The witcher.” It was a statement, not a question, but there was a flicker of desperate uncertainty beneath the child’s words that made Geralt’s chest tight. He nodded again. 

He had been taking her in, this young princess with a smudged face and tangled white-gold hair. She had been looking for him, and the journey had unmade any royal airs she may have had. That one day in the square, playing knucklebones, she’d been so carefree. Protected, safe, contented and clearly itching not to be. Now everyone and everything she knew was gone, and all she had in the world was a mutant stranger.

She was sharper than any human he’d ever come across, he could tell. And she  _ was _ human, but he could sense some unknown magic in her. How did she find him? And how did she know to ask?

“Yennefer is a mage. She’s fighting Nilfgaard. We have to get to her.”

“I saw. I don’t know how.”

“Neither do I.” 

If this had been any other day, Geralt would have wavered here. Witchers weren’t in the business of children, and he knew no other way of being to her than as an adult. This would not be easy, protecting her. But his mind was on Yennefer, so they hurried back to Roach in silence. Ciri kept pace with him somehow. When they reached his he swung her up behind him and she held tight. She felt so small. Geralt’s blood ran cold as he kicked Roach and set off. She was so small and Yennefer was dying and if there were time for feelings, the witcher would be terrified.


	2. Chapter 2

Yennefer flickered in and out of consciousness. She didn’t feel her body anymore, thought it might have been torn to shreds, or burned along with the rest. She hoped it had been enough. 

The embers around her still burned. Geralt was near. She was weak, but she felt him as she always did, so she must still be alive. Her eyes opened but couldn’t focus. His shape came closer - he was running - he fell to his knees beside her - she was very glad to die if he was at least there in the ashes with her. 

Her eyes opened and she was in his arms. He was carrying her. Gravity felt too great a force to reckon with, and it didn’t cross her mind to stop it pulling the blood from her abdomen. She wouldn’t have been able to, anyway. 

Her eyes opened again and she wasn’t in the burning field anymore. Yennefer could feel her body again, if it was still a body. She had lived so many lifetimes like a vessel for chaos, filled with molten power that sometimes leaked through the cracks of her. The vessel had burned away now and the chaos was gone. She wasn’t empty, she was evaporated.

The next time her eyes opened they were met with a flash of gold. “Rest, Yen. You’re safe.” So she rested.


	3. Chapter 3

When she broke the surface of her pain and came to, it was linen instead of coal on her skin. Geralt was at her side as soon as she tried to push herself up, broad hands pressing her gently but firmly back into the mattress. Yennefer let him, and for a moment it was enough to feel herself alive and alive with him. She turned her head to look past him.

There was a girl. Pale, with white hair and round eyes. She was barely more than a child. She stared plaintively back at Yennefer. It took a moment for the smoke in her mind to clear, but then she realized.

  
Yennefer looked back up at Geralt. “Your child of surprise.” His jaw clenched, brow still furrowed in concern. 

“Ciri. Princess of Cintra.” He offered no other information.

If she’d had any strength, there were a thousand absurdities to remark on. This child, Geralt’s child, here, and she was a princess. 

Yennefer looked straight into the girl’s clear eyes and could make no sense of her, but felt the child fall into some yet-undetermined place in her life. “I’m Yennefer.” 

She rose from the bench and stood by Geralt. “Ciri,” she replied. Yennefer smiled. 

She had forgotten to ask about Sodden. When she woke again she opened her mouth to make Geralt tell her, but then she saw him at the fireplace. He was seated, looking into the flames, with Ciri inches away from him. They made quite the picture, the slight girl cross-legged beside the giant witcher, both with their white hair glowing in the firelight. They sat still and quiet, neither quite at ease but both finally in the right place. Yennefer could feel it, the threads of destiny or whatever it was that bound them together. She could feel her own place in the spiderweb, too, though her magic was barely a glimmer inside her – and this time when she drifted off, she was sure of what she would be coming back to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m juulcatmeme or userredlights on tumblr if you wanna have feelings about things with me


End file.
